Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Absolutely the worst movie.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I've seen this film probably four or five times, and I love it more each time. I sought out Blow Dry because I love Bill Nighy, Alan Rickman and the late, great Natasha Richardson ... but it took me ages to find the DVD because it had these two random American kids on the cover.I was puzzled because Richardson, Rickman and Nighy had obviously been relegated to sub-plot which seemed incredible, but I watched it anyway. In the event, the marketing became only more baffling. I can only assume that the publicists played on Josh Hartnett and Rachael Leigh Cook for the American market, but in doing so they must have put off an awful lot of people like me - and surely Richardson at least carried plenty of weight in the US? And Nighy and Rickman are hardly unknowns!Anyway, now that I've found it in spite of the marketing people totally missing the point, I can review it. Blow Dry is whimsical, gentle and funny - and I mean that in the best possible way. It's a British comedy in the best tradition, understated, warm and centred solidly in the very ordinary lives of very ordinary people.Bill Nighy is predictably surreal and steals every scene he's in, but handles his role as the devious, dastardly but ultimately vulnerable and really quite likable villain of the piece very well. Alan Rickman struggles a little to portray his character's bitterness and hostility at first, but as the character warms up he comes into his own. Given his character's back story it must have been something of a task both for Rickman and for the writers to avoid making him utterly pitiable, but they managed it and Phil comes out the hero, still hurting but beginning to move forward with life in totally non-pathetic fashion.The screen belongs, though, to Natasha Richardson. The relationship between Shelley, played by Richardson, and Sandra is brilliant; totally convincing but not in any way more of an issue than it should be. There's a brief moment of surprise when you realise they're a couple, but it's written and played so well that you very quickly accept it and it becomes simply part of the story. Richardson's balancing act between pathos and comedy is finely-tuned and very admirable; the fact that she's dying is never forgotten, but neither is it allowed to overshadow the plot or stifle the comedy. For one of the best examples I have ever seen of good, simple writing skilfully delivered, watch Richardson's scene with the doctor in which her character learns she is terminal; it should not be possible to be that sad and yet funny at the same time!My one complaint with this film is the casting of Josh Hartnett as Phil and Shelley's son, Brian. Rachael Leigh Cook is non-descript and suffers from being on the same screen as Bill Nighy, but at least they just let her be American even if she was a strange choice in the first place. Josh Hartnett, meanwhile, should never have been allowed anywhere near this film, and all the line-cutting in the world (and you get the impression they cut as much as they could get away with) can't prevent him from ruining what should have been some of the finest scenes in the film. The scene about halfway through in which Richardson's character reveals to Phil and Brian that she has cancer and is dying should have been a deeply moving showcase for the talents of Richardson and Rickman, but the viewer is thrown completely out of the moment by Hartnett's utterly appalling trampling of the Yorkshire accent - which, in spite of its awfulness, still seems to have been absorbing enough to prevent him from actually acting at the same time.Aside from this utterly bewildering casting choice, Blow Dry is a fantastic film - I could rave about it even longer, but your time would be better spent just watching it.

The British hairdressing championships are coming to Keighley and it just happens to be the town where Phil (Alan Rickman) lives. He used to be the champion until he wife Shelley (Natasha Richardson) left him for Sandra (Rachel Griffiths). Oh, My! Now, he is just a barber (gasp!) and wants nothing to do with Shelly or the championships. Problem is, there is no one else in town that can represent it.A family reunites and we get to see some of the finest British actors.I just hope my hairdresser doesn't see this and get weird ideas. I don't want to come out with green spikes!

This is an appalling film. Rickman cannot pull off playing a working class British Barber but at least gives it a fair aul whack. But Hartnetts accent is quite easily the most shocking that I have ever encountered in a motion picture. And I'm Irish so I've noticed a lot of Shockers. Paddy Breathnach must have done his best though, as I honestly do not believe a director could have allowed such poor acting in his film had the casting choice actually been his. And whats the deal with 'Quirky British movies'? They are by and large fantastical hodgepodges crying out for originality but consistently looking like the idea was scibbled on the back of a beermat.

Fairly average film. Fairly humorous but apart from that there was nothing else really going for it. The film doesn't really have much to keep you interested and it had the feel that I'd seen it a score or more time before. I'm sure there are films out there with the exact same plot but are about dancing or summat like. What really got my goat, though, was the worst Yorkshire accents I have ever heard in my life. Rickman didn't even bother to try and sound northern, whilst at times I thought Hartnett was trying to sound more like he was from Ireland, Italy or Kentucky than Keighley - sometimes all three at the same time!All in all, forgettable film, unforgettably dreadful accents. I wouldn't watch it again, but if I were, it would only be to stare wistfully at Rachael Leigh Cook.